Mission statement
Tohatchi’s St. Mary Mission works for greener future

Regina Timmes and Rachel Pool, both with St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church in Winter Park, Fla. paint the greenhouse at St. Mary's Mission in Tohatchi on Thursday. With the addition of solar panels and a new greenhouse, the mission is trying to lighten it's carbon footprint. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Brian Leddy

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent

TOHATCHI — Perhaps it’s not surprising that the folks at St. Mary Mission have recently enlisted the aid of Brother Sun to help them toward a greener future.It is a Franciscan mission after all, founded by the followers of St. Francis of Assisi, the author of the “Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon” and the patron saint of animals and ecology.

So after a dozen years of small steps — modest recycling and composting, tree planting projects, and tending a small organic garden — the residents at St. Mary have taken a couple of large leaps to establish the Brother Sun Solar Project and the Mother Earth Greenhouse.

“Someday this may be a little paradise,” said the Rev. John Mittelstadt, the Franciscan priest who has served at the Navajo mission church in Tohatchi for more than 20 years.

Mittelstadt and fellow staff member Sister Pat Bietsch talked about the two projects as they gave a tour of the mission on Thursday. Bietsch, who explained she learned about the potential of wind and solar energy while working on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, is a member of Gallup Solar, the local nonprofit that promotes alternative energy projects.

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